Yesterday, the Department of Labor & Industries released a draft version of a report ordered up by the Legislature in 2007 on the worrisome fact that despite an overall downward trend in the frequency and severity of workers' comp claims in Washington over the last decade, the trend of putting injured workers on pensions has doubled. The report is meant to look at some reasons why.
Some factors to watch behind the "surge":
The fact Washington's system is unique in the country in that it prohibits workers and employers (and the state) from entering into final settlement of claims.
The overall litigiousness of Washington's workers' comp system and the strong correlation between legal representation and pension awards.
A push by L&I claims staff to clear out long-term claims and park them as pensions.
Comments on this draft are due to the research team by September 19th. If you have any, send them my way (KrisT@AWB.org) and I'll pass them along.
